M&A News

Entergy’s wholesale generation division, Entergy Wholesale Commodities, entered into an agreement to sell its 583-MW Rhode Island State Energy Center (RISEC), located in Johnston, R.I., to Carlyle Power Partners. The facility is a natural gas-fired, combined-cycle generating plant that entered commercial service in 2002. The base sales price is approximately $490 million, subject to closing adjustments.

Talen Energy agreed to sell three Pennsylvania power plants with a total combined generating capacity of 996 MW for $1.51 billion in gross cash proceeds, subject to customary purchase price adjustments. The 704-MW Ironwood plant is being sold to a subsidiary of TransCanada for a total purchase price of $654 million. The Holtwood and Lake Wallenpaupack hydroelectric projects, with a combined generating capacity of 292 MW, were sold to a subsidiary of Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners L.P. for $860 million.

Google plans to buy Vestas’ 12.5 percent share in Lake Turkana Wind Power, Africa’s largest wind park, when the project is complete in 2017. The share purchase agreement is in connection with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's Climate and Clean Energy Investment Forum and builds on a relationship between Google and Vestas, which also includes the 270-MW Alta Wind Energy Centre in southern California and the powering of a Google data centre in Finland. The Lake Turkana wind park is owned by Lake Turkana Wind Power.

Southern Company subsidiary Southern Power and Turner Renewable Energy acquired the 15- MW Morelos del Sol Solar Facility from Solar Frontier Americas. Southern Power's eighth solar acquisition in California. DEPCOM Power is providing EPC services and will also operate and maintain the facility for Southern Power. Construction of the plant began in July, and commercial operation is expected in late November.

GE completed the acquisition of Alstom's power and grid businesses. The completion of the transaction follows the regulatory approval of the deal in over 20 countries and regions including the EU, U.S., China, India, Japan and Brazil. It is GE's largest-ever industrial acquisition. GE reached an agreement with Alstom in 2014 to purchase Alstom's power and grid businesses for $12.35 billion.

Southern Company subsidiary Southern Power, acquired a controlling interest in the 200- MW Tranquillity Solar Facility in California from Recurrent Energy, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar Inc. Recurrent Energy is constructing the facility and will retain the remaining interest in the project. Construction began in July, with Signal Energy Constructors managing the engineering, procurement and construction of the facility. The project is expected to enter commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2016.

EDF Renewable Energy (EDF RE) closed the acquisition of OwnEnergy - a national developer of mid-sized wind projects. The transaction encompasses 100% of OwnEnergy's assets, including its pipeline of future wind projects. These projects represent 329 MW of developed wind energy assets sold to third parties.

Southern Company and AGL Resources boards of directors approved a definitive merger agreement to create an electric and gas utility company. Pursuant to the agreement, AGL Resources will become a new wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Company in a transaction with an enterprise value of approximately $12 billion, including a total equity value of approximately $8 billion.

Dominion Midstream Partners entered into agreements with affiliates of National Grid and New Jersey Resources to acquire their ownership interests in Iroquois Gas Transmission System, in exchange for the issuance of approximately 8.6 million common units in Dominion Midstream having an agreed-upon value of approximately $286.5 million.

SunEdison signed a definitive agreement with Dominion, establishing a joint venture for Four Brothers, a 420-MW DC, or 320-MW  AC, solar project in Utah, developed by SunEdison. The project is now under construction and fully financed with an expected commercial operation date of mid-2016. The Four Brothers project is contracted under long-term PPAs for 20 years with PacifiCorp.